Councillors and officers are indispensable to one another and mutual respect and communication between both is essential for good local government.
Together, they bring the critical skills, experience and knowledge required to manage an effective council. Councillors provide a democratic mandate to the council, whereas officers contribute the professional and managerial expertise needed to deliver the policy framework agreed by councillors. The roles are very different but need to work in a complementary way.
It is a unique relationship not replicated in any other type of business or organisation.
In broad terms, councillors represent their residents, set overarching policy and strategy and take decisions in Full Council and other committees. Employees manage and deliver services, provide advice to councillors and ensure the Council acts in a lawful manner. Importantly, the Chief Executive and directors are responsible for the management of staff and Members have no staff management responsibility.
The Council has a People Strategy that sets out its key priorities for recruiting, retaining and developing staff. Further details of the respective roles of councillors and officers is set out in Part 5 of the Council Constitution (under the ‘Protocol on Member/Officer Relations’).